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Men of Valor (Xbox)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Vivendi Universal
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://www.menofvalorgame.com
• Score: 2 of 5: Strictly Rental

It is 1965 and the steamy jungles of Vietnam are rife with unrest. You are Dean Shepard, a young African-American Marine stationed in Southeast Asia. It is the beginning of America's involvement in the conflict between North and South Vietnam, and neither you nor your squad mates know what to expect. Soon, your world will be on fire, and the buddies you played football with will be playing a game of life and death.

At least that is what 2015 want you to think about Men of Valor. In reality, the game falls far short of the glorified descriptions. From the linear, confined "jungle" maps to the frustratingly dumb A.I., there is much lacking in the gameplay department.

I find it hard to understand how a game based in the jungles of Vietnam can have such confined maps. You will often find yourself running in swallow streams with unclimbable banks. These caused me to suffer horrible flashbacks to the original Crash Bandicoot. Even in the dense jungle areas, the walls encasing the map were blatantly obvious and you can't even take cover around them. For a game that prides itself in realistically portraying the struggle in Vietnam, this is an unforgivable design flaw. I understand there are limits to the aged Quake III engine, but that is all the more reason to find another engine for a Vietnam-based shooter.

The A.I. in the game is not intelligent by any means. Perhaps I've been spoiled by games such as Call of Duty, but I was very disappointed by the combat performance of my squad mates. The friendly A.I. is just not capable of determining the nearest threat. When they have chosen a target, they will continue to shoot at it until it is dead. It is not uncommon for another enemy to run right past a squad mate while your "buddy" is busy trying to shoot a fleeing enemy in the distance. And because your friends are horrible shots, you will often have to kill their targets yourself. In situations like this, I prefer to have no squad mates at all. Games like Halo and Call of Duty allow you to trust that your buddy will have your back while you are handling your business. This gives you more time to take your shots. Men of Valor, however, does not succeed in allowing you to trust your squad mates. In fact, I found myself getting killed many times simply because I put too much faith in my teammates and expected them to give me some kind-any kind-of cover. If I have to kill all the enemies myself, I would rather not have to worry about squad mates getting in my way.

As for the enemy A.I., it isn't much better. It seems that to compensate for the lack of intelligence, the enemy has been given better accuracy and ability to absorb hits. I can't stand cheating from a human enemy, much less an artificial enemy. Be warned that going prone and slowly sneaking through tall grass will not help you at all. Being on your belly just gives the enemy a better chance of shooting you through the head. Apparently, the Vietcong are able to see through grass and hear a twig snap from 100 yards away in the middle of a firefight with your squad. Up close, however, is a different story. Multiple enemies will often run along the same path, and enemies will spawn in the same location every play-through. While it makes it easier once you memorize the direction the enemy is going to come from, it jacks you right out of the "realistic" Vietnam atmosphere.

While the gameplay has its weaknesses, the storyline is a saving grace to a point. Unlike the many WWII shooters that use the same clichés, Men of Valor is one of only a handful of Vietnam games. A lot of time and effort has been put into the backstory of the game in order to give the gamer a better sense of a true Vietnam-era atmosphere. The idea of casting an African-American as the lead protagonist in a Vietnam story is truly inspired. Yet, the story quickly games from interesting to overly cheesy. In actuality, it felt like the writers tried to cram everything from every Vietnam movie ever made into one story. You're meant to experience the "surprise" of an ordinary day at the base being broken by an enemy attack, the "pain" of losing a squad mate in battle, and the "heartbreaking" emotions of burning down a Vietnamese village. Yet in reality, you will never come close to feeling any of these. In fact, I felt a little annoyed about feeling dragged along by the events of the story. You see, you don't actually have any kind of control over any of these events. You know they are coming, but they are all scripted and will happen the same way every time. In battle, your squad mates can take an entire clip to the chest and hit the ground. Then after you clear the area, they dust themselves off and keep going. When one is finally killed in a scripted event, it is almost a relief.

The cut-scenes are also mildly annoying. You are forced to sit through many of them. All you can do is look around a 170-degree arc until the scripted event you know is coming finally happens. The animations in the scenes aren't even fluid, and you'll see a lot of jerks and "skips." The missions themselves are often broken by letters between Dean, the protagonist, and his parents. Fortunately, you are able to skip these. The letters are extremely clichéd, and the voice acting is sub-par. My cheese-o-meter topped out during these emotional events.

I'll admit that I'm being very harsh on this game. Can you really blame me? This game comes from the same studio that did most of the Medal of Honor games. Why they took such a huge step backwards on Men of Valor is beyond me. While this game should have been a Vietnam-based rival to many of the magnificent WWII titles, it ends up feeling like playing through a cheesy Vietnam-based "B"-movie. While I cannot recommend anyone to purchase this game, if you are looking for a Vietnam shooter that tells a decent story with quality sounds and music, you might want to pick this up as a rental.

Apr 12, 2005 | 0 comments
Will